JuranBoldenRules

There's a good chance that a bunch of American players were good baseball players growing up too. A lot of guys play high school or NCAA baseball and are drafted by the MLB, but choose to pursue football. Being able to play rookie ball (keep in mind the Goldeyes are compared to high A-AA, and rookie ball is 2 steps below that) wouldn't necessarily separate one guy from the pack, just that he had the opportunity to pursue baseball while being out of football. Andrew Harris was one of the top hockey players in his age group in Manitoba, I'm sure a lot of other guys in the CFL were top basketball and baseball players growing up too.

I guess the game we played them was an anomaly. I would rather play against Brink any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. We got beat by a number of deep balls. Smith is one of the most inaccurate QB's we've seen recently, can't do anything to get the ball to guys who can do lots once they have it, he's also throwing at guys with a gigantic catching radius like Carter, Green, Stafford and still missing. Brink can at least hit some of those intermediate throws and screens. If we had a guy like Carter, Willy would probably be averaging another 50 yard passing per game.

They are both awful. Brink can actually make some throws though. Smith only has the deep ball. Easier to defend Smith.

The mid-2000s golds are probably our best 3rd jerseys. Could have just given those some kind of weird glossy finish and called it new.

Won't it be even more sore after he sits?

yup. Still would like to see us get to four National starters on the O line. Opens up so many other options. "four National starters on the O line" When Goosen is ready to go we can move Neufeld back to his natural position at tackle ... maybe when he has learned a bit more Having Goossen and Neufeld on one side of our OL anytime soon is a scary thought, ratio be damned. Don't think we'll see a whole lot of Goossen at guard when he actually becomes a starter, he'll be a great centre.

Dinwiddie was a pretty good OC for us in the 2nd half of 2008 when Berry took away Kit Cartwright's responsibilities and then gave up himself too. If I were him I'd head back to the states next year and try to work my way up in NCAA. Just look at where his backup from the 07 Grey Cup is. Spent one year coaching Johnny Football and heading into his second year as head coach at Texas Tech, base salary over $2 million a year. Loads of money to be made there.

These ones are for the players who've had to wear some fugly retros in recent years. I bet they don't sell very well at all, with any generation. Many of the NCAA ones don't. They literally dress more and more ridiculous to get mentioned on SportsCenter and other national shows, trying to build program awareness by dressing like fools.

Hinse...and...Sorenson...and...Jones in Edmonton...and...? Mitchell, Myddleton... But... I didn't see the 'currently starting' part... You could include Gott I suppose. But I think finding a Cdn OL shouldn't just be completely ruled it - it can happen. Well, Gott cost the 1st overall pick (a player who will probably be as good or better than him soon and play for several more years) and the rights to Marwan Hage. Hinse and Swiston are in the same class as Mitchell and Myddleton, Swiston is probably a little better than the rest. At least half of those guys wouldn't be in the league if it weren't for Ottawa returning. Myddleton lost his roster spot to an undrafted player who isn't very good (Rice) and his ineffectiveness gave the Ticats no choice but to start 3 imports. Look at Calgary's OL last night- LT- import LG- 4th round pick 2013 C- 2nd round pick 2013 RG- Territorial exemption RT- Acquired for 4th rounder in 2011 6th- 1st overall pick 2014 All of them have only played for Calgary in the CFL. That's the model to aspire to.

Got any in mind? This is the key point. There's one Canadian OL who changed teams via free agency in 2014 who is currently starting, that's Andrew Jones for Edmonton. He'd probably be 3rd or 4th on our depth chart at guard.

Agreed... but the real benefit that I see Messam brings is that you can field two backs and not affect the ratio - let's say Grigsby and Messam - two totally different styles and keep defences off balance. Basically, that's what happened - Bombers started shutting down Ford so Sask just changed to Messam, took some time to adjust... by that time it was too late. Too late for what? Offense doesn't hand 2 TD's to the Riders and it's an easy win.

Hall is a pure pass rusher. A healthy Vega would really help against the run, too bad we don't have any depth to give him a couple games to get healthy.

IMO he's shown better as a receiver when he's been lined up out wide. Dropped a bunch out of the backfield, plus he can't do much after the catch unless he's in wide open space, he has a bit of trouble catching passes in stride in the middle of the field too.

A back like Messam is hit or miss with his upright running, his power isn't coming from his lower body. If teams are prepared for him, he won't be able to do much cause they'll just cut him down. Usually after he gets cut down a few times he tries to find open space running east-west and then he's really ineffective. Clearly our D was a little stunned when he started getting the ball. They still stopped him for little gain quite a few times and didn't give up any TD's when he was in the game.

Fumble wasn't caused by anything but poor ball security. If he's holding the ball properly and securely, it doesn't fly out. It's football, you have to carry the ball in a manner in which you can absorb impact without coughing the ball up. Work with him on ball security, or scratch him off the list of returners.

Happy in some ways that they beat themselves. Should be a good lesson. They didn't get beat, they lost. The mistakes are relatively fixable (passing from empty backfields way too much being a huge one in terms of slowing down the pass rush). The defense continues to give up nothing in terms of points. I'd like to see them run the hurry-up offence consistently throughout the game to control the tempo more, especially when the opposing pass rush in that effective. Clearly need a running back.

Grigsby is Dorzon bad as a tailback. I'd dress him as a WR over Bryant though. He played WR quite a bit last night and was good.

Should never have went to that party at Mike Duffy's house....

Is Kashawn Fraser back? Who plays if Fraser and Anderson are both out?

That's probably a $15-$20 cab ride each way to and from the casino! Jump on a 160 or 161 (To U of M) bus, it stops all over downtown within a couple minute walk of your hotel. That will take you right to the stadium. They add a ton of buses on gameday on that route in the couple hours before and after the game. You have to pay $2.55 on the way to the game, it's free on the way back. Balmoral Station is close to your hotel, MTS Centre too. Those routes stop there. And if you want to gamble, go to the Shark Club.

Troy Smith is not a running QB. He is a pocket passer who has some ability to scramble. He ran for about 40 yards per game at Ohio State. The problem is that he isn't good as any type of QB, because he has no consistent accuracy no matter where he's throwing from. They are paying him a lot too. I wouldn't be surprised if he's making more than Willy. I find it hard to judge Dinwiddie given Smith's obvious issues. I watched a decent portion of the game against Toronto, and Smith was just sailing the ball past open receivers, missing wide-open guys in the flats and on bubble screens that were well blocked, even on deep balls his supposed strength. Several times he had Duron Carter 1 on 1, but couldn't even give him a shot to make a play on a deep ball, and Carter has one of the largest catching radii on either side of the border.

Watching that play again, I like that they didn't roll Willy out. For one, you cut off an entire half to 3/4 of the field by doing that, plus you also give defenders better access to disrupt the passing lanes. Westwood was yelling about that on the radio yesterday, why didn't they roll Willy out, but didn't seem to put any thought into the pros and cons of that in terms of passing the ball. If Lefevour was our QB, I'd probably roll out. Looked like they were matching Hamilton in the box, Bryant and Feoli-Gudino came up to the line on the right side to block as Hamilton overloaded the weak-side opposite Grigsby's alignment, clearly defending any off-tackle or sweep type running play. 3 guys in the route, Willy can read all of them from the pocket. Kelly and Denmark run a post corner, Kelly is covered coming into the middle of the field, where more bodies are, not an option, Denmark is covered on his corner, Grigsby is in the clear but the DE who is covering him is chasing wildly and in the passing lane. Willy makes an amazing adjustment and throw to lead Grigsby into open space and drop it in on him. Only thing I didn't like about that play was the line call. Slide protect left/strong when Hamilton has the offensive right/weak-side overloaded in case the Bombers try to run Grigsby off tackle. January, Greaves and Morley all ended up blocking the same guy when 2 Ticats from the right side of the line (essentially Willy's blindside with the route going to the left side of the field) came through as Bryant and Feoli-Gudino ended up blocking them 2 on 3. January, Greaves and Morley would have still been 3 on 2 had Gascon-Nadon not bailed into coverage.

Adding another quarterback who cannot pass can only help.

Here's the pace of our receivers, RB and QB through 6 games. Nick Moore: 75 catches 1088 yards *adjusted for missed game Clarence Denmark: 63 catches 924 yards Aaron Kelly: 72 catches 1092 yards *adjusted for missed games Julian Feoli-Gudino: 60 catches 543 yards Rory Kohlert: 33 catches 393 yards Nic Grigsby: 69 catches 670 yards 240 carries 1029 yards Drew Willy: 381-582 4986 yards 21 TDs 12 INTs

It'll be ready for the Pan Am games. Bonus for the CFL if it's ready before then.